Judicial Orientation Training for Newly Appointed Acting Judges

Ten (10) acting judges have been provided with valuable information about the importance of their role as Judges of the Papua New Guinea National Court. A week-long training was conducted early this month to acquaint the newly appointed acting judges with areas of substantive law and administration such as judicial decision making, electronic case management and courtroom management. The training format included five days of workshops from 1 to 5 November on various topics related to developing judicial knowledge, skills and attributes aimed at making the transition from the bar to the bench a lot easier and to enable them to perform their new roles with greater confidence. The orientation workshop was conducted at the PNG Centre for Judicial Excellence Training Facility within the Waigani National and Supreme Court complex.

The newly appointed Acting Judges included Justices Taunamo M. Rei, Nerrie P. Eliakim, Tracy Ganaii, Laura Wawun-Kuvi, Irene A. Mugugia, Camillus J. Sambua, Emma Wurr, Michael C. Thoke, Getrude Tamade, and Gerhard V. Linge

The Chief Justice Sir Gibuma Gibbs Salika stated during the opening session of the training that access to Justice is the primary responsibility of the Judiciary. He added that the administration of justice is constitutionally the responsibility of all the Judges to ensure that judicial services are accorded to the people within reasonable time and according to law. He told the new judges that they were practicing lawyers who have now been appointed as Judges hence a new set of skills would be learnt to better understand their new role, and to develop effective management techniques in various aspects of both the civil and criminal jurisdictions.